LYSSARA
I woke with the specific clarity of someone who had put something down the previous day and whose body had registered the putting down as a physical fact overnight.
Not lighter exactly. Cleaner. The way a room felt after something that had been occupying a corner for so long, it had become part of the furniture, was finally removed, and you could see the floor again.
Thalric was asleep beside me, and the pack house was quiet, and I understood with complete and specific clarity that today was different from yesterday in a way that had nothing to do with governance or sovereignty or the founding compact's architecture.
Yesterday I had stood at the southern boundary and let someone see me.
Not the Alpha Queen. Not the sovereign. Me. The woman who had been on the cold table. Who h
